1. Field of the Invention
The disclosed invention relates generally to integrated circuit fabrication, techniques for fabrication of computer memory, and masking techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a consequence of many factors, including demand for increased portability, computing power, memory capacity and energy efficiency in modern electronics, integrated circuits are continuously being reduced in size. To facilitate this size reduction, research continues into ways of reducing the sizes of integrated circuits' constituent features. Examples of those constituent features include capacitors, electrical contacts, interconnecting lines, and other electrical devices. The trend of decreasing feature size is evident, for example, in memory circuits or devices such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), ferroelectric (FE) memories, electronically-erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, etc.
A NAND flash memory chip, for example, typically comprises millions of identical circuit elements, known as memory cells, arranged in a plurality of arrays with associated logic circuitry. Each memory cell traditionally stores one bit of information, although multi-level cell devices can store more than one bit per cell. In its most general form, a memory cell typically consists of two electrical devices: a storage capacitor and an access field effect transistor. Each memory cell is an addressable location that can store one bit (binary digit) of data. A bit can be written to a cell through the transistor and read by sensing charge on the storage electrode from the reference electrode side. By decreasing the sizes of constituent electrical devices, the conducting lines that connect them, and the conductive contacts carrying charge between them, the sizes of the memory devices incorporating these features can be decreased. Storage capacities and circuit speed can be increased by fitting more memory cells into the memory devices.
The continual reduction in feature sizes places ever greater demands on techniques used to form the features. For example, photolithography is commonly used to pattern features on a substrate. The concept of pitch can be used to describe the size of these features. Pitch is the distance between identical points in two neighboring features. These features are typically defined by spaces between adjacent features, which spaces may be filled by a material, such as an insulator. As a result, pitch can be viewed as the sum of the width of a feature and of the width of the space separating that feature from a neighboring feature, when that neighboring feature is part of a repeating or periodic pattern, such as may occur in an array of features, for example.
Certain photoresist materials only respond to certain wavelengths of light. One common range of wavelengths that can be used lies in the ultraviolet (UV) range. Because many photoresist materials respond selectively to particular wavelengths, photolithography techniques each have a minimum pitch below which that particular photolithographic technique cannot reliably form features. This minimum pitch is often determined by the wavelength of light that can be used with that technique. Thus, the minimum pitch of a photolithographic technique can limit feature size reduction.
Pitch multiplication (or pitch doubling or pitch reduction) can extend the capabilities of photolithographic techniques to allow creation of more densely arranged features. Such a method is illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1F and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,810, issued to Lowrey et al., the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference and made part of this specification. For convenience, the method will also be briefly outlined here.
With reference to FIG. 1A, photolithography is first used to form a pattern of lines 10 in a photoresist layer overlying a layer 20 of an expendable material and a substrate 30. The layers shown in FIG. 1 are all shown schematically in cross-section. As shown in FIG. 1B, the pattern is then transferred by an etch step (preferably anisotropic) to the layer 20, forming placeholders, or mandrels, 40. If the etch is anisotropic, the mandrels have approximately vertical sides, as shown. The photoresist lines 10 can be stripped and the mandrels 40 can be isotropically etched to increase the distance between neighboring mandrels 40, as shown in FIG. 1C. This isotropic etch (or shrink step) can alternatively be performed on the resist prior to transfer. A layer 50 of spacer material is subsequently deposited over the mandrels 40, as shown in FIG. 1D. Spacers 60, i.e., material extending or originally formed extending from sidewalls of another material, are then formed on the sides of the mandrels 40 by preferentially etching the spacer material from the horizontal surfaces 70 and 80 in a directional (or anisotropic) spacer etch. Such spacers are shown in FIG. 1E. The remaining mandrels 40 are then removed, leaving behind only the spacers 60 above substrate 30. The spacers 60 together act as a mask for patterning, as shown in FIG. 1F. Thus, where a given pitch formerly included a pattern defining one feature and one space, the same width now includes two features and two spaces defined by the spacers 60. As a result, the smallest feature size possible with a photolithographic technique is effectively decreased by this “pitch-multiplication” technique.
While the pitch is actually halved in the example above, this reduction in pitch is conventionally referred to as pitch “doubling,” or, more generally, pitch “multiplication.” That is, conventionally “multiplication” of pitch by a certain factor actually involves reducing the pitch by that factor. In fact, “pitch multiplication” increases the density of features by reducing pitch. Pitch thus has at least two meanings: the linear spacing between identical features in a repeating pattern; and the density or number of features per linear distance. The conventional terminology is retained herein.
The critical dimension (CD) of a mask scheme or circuit design is the scheme's minimum feature dimension, or the measurement of the smallest width of the smallest feature that exists in that design or scheme. Due to factors such as geometric complexity and different requirements for critical dimensions in different parts of an integrated circuit, typically not all features of the integrated circuit will be pitch multiplied. Furthermore, pitch multiplication entails many additional steps relative to conventional lithography; the additional steps can involve considerable additional expense. However, if some features of an integrated circuit are pitch multiplied, it is inconvenient if connecting features that interface with those features are not also pitch multiplied. Thus, features that are configured to contact each other are advantageously of similar dimensions. Such similar dimensions can allow for smaller and more efficient operative units on an integrated circuit, thus increasing feature density and decreasing chip size.
Conventional methods of forming contacts through insulating materials to create electrical connections between underlying and overlying circuit layers have not allowed the density of contact features to match the density of the features intended to be connected by those contact features. Accordingly, there is a need for methods of forming contacts with reduced dimensions that can match the density of the features intended to be connected by those contact features, especially where pitch multiplication has been used to form the features to be connected.
Furthermore, there is a need for a reduction in the size of integrated circuits and an increased operable density of the arrays of electrical devices on computer chips. Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods of forming small features; improved methods for increasing feature density; methods that will produce more efficient arrays; and techniques that will provide more compact arrays without harming feature resolution.